for Gospel Ministry

About The Residency

Residency commitment options are 1 year or 2 years. During the application and interview process, you will apply for a specific position that fits your gifts, skills, and personal passion then we will help you discern if it would be a good fit.

Full Time

The Residency is a full time, support raised job role, and has a 40-50 hour per week time commitment with a one or two-year term. Whether you are interested in pursuing vocational ministry or taking a job in the secular workforce, the residency is for you. You will grow exponentially in your spiritual life as well as professional development. The expectations for full time residents are the same as that of full time staff and will be included in all staff meetings and events.

We highly encourage full time commitments due to the short term nature of our program, however we occasionally make exceptions for part time applicants due to special circumstances. One year goes by so quickly and we would love for you to be able to commit fully and go "all in" with our church family.

Opportunities

LifeGroup Administration:

Work on the Groups Team to place people into LifeGroups, plan & execute LG leader trainings, etc

Opportunities to grow in: recruiting, training, and leading volunteers, teaching, professional administration and communication, event planning/execution, and working with a variety of ages from babies to upper elementary aged kids and their parents

Work directly under our Worship Pastor to coordinate Sunday Gatherings

Opportunities to grow in: volunteer coordinating, audio and visual comprehension and training, speaking to and leading small groups, system Integration for recurring tasks, professional administration and communication, event coordinating

TIMELINE

Our next Residency class launches in January 2020. Below you can see a timeline from application to launch day.

JANUARY 2020 LAUNCH

March 18:Application Opens

April - May:Interviews

June:Acceptance and Preparation

June 14-16:Ministry PartnerDevelopmentTraining

January 13:Launch Day

June - October:Raise Support

In the videos below, hear past years' Residents talk about their experience.

I have learned so much! From fellow Residents, I’ve learned how to work with people who think differently than I do, and what it looks like to come together to fulfill a common goal. I’ve learned a lot about myself, like how I function in leadership roles, how I can grow, more of who Jesus is, who I am in Him, and what life looks like as a woman in love with the Lord.

- Morgan Duke

The best part of Residency has been seeing first-hand how the Church operates. A “Jesus-centered family on mission” isn’t just what we say on the website or from stage on Sundays. It is how we work, eat, settle conflict, pray, run meetings, and celebrate together. Residency has given me the privilege to study how the Old Testament points to Jesus through weekly Bible study sessions with Ant, to learn from Jeff’s experience on how planning a successful, smooth event serves our church family, and to see how Chris balances a mountain of business tasks with both drive and humor. Before coming in to Residency, I thought I had a skill set that was best suited for working in the classroom. Through Residency, I learned how my gifts can be applied to a variety of tasks.

- Alice McMahan

What if I don’t know where I want to serve?We intentionally have a long interview process involving multiple interviews and pastors to carefully discern what area and responsibilities would best serve you. Not knowing where to serve is not an issue.

But I’m pretty sure I know exactly what I want to do.Great! We will talk through these interests in the interviews. Many times there are misunderstandings on what job details entail for different areas. For instance, interest in LifeGroups actually means overseeing LifeGroups with very little relational interaction. We assign job responsibilities to aid in your development. If there are things that you love, we will try to protect and incorporate them.

With that being said, mark what you think you're interested in and that will spark conversation points and clarification during interviews. We use interviews very carefully. Applications are non-committal, but we use our two rounds of interviews to discern if this is a good fit and what you will be doing during your time in the Residency.

What are tasks that residents work on?

Each residency experience is unique to the resident, but residents could work on tasks anywhere from developing a spreadsheet to planning out events to leading a team of volunteers on Sunday. We use job descriptions as a tool for development rather than merely receiving production from a resident. Tasks aren’t the main priority–it is more about developing leadership.

How does Ministry Partner Development (support raising) work?We view Ministry Partner Development as an integral part of your development in the Residency. Raising support provides excellent opportunity for learning to trust Jesus with finances. MPD is the process of inviting individuals to partner with you by giving financially to your Residency. By inviting individuals to partner financially, you are giving them the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing in Columbia.

After you are accepted to the Residency you will have a weekend of MPD training where you will learn the biblical basis behind support raising and the best methods to go about doing so. Our Residency Director, Megan Rife, will be your MPD Coach throughout the 14 weeks you will be raising support. She will be there each step along the way to provide, coaching, accountability, and encouragement. Please do not let finances get in the way of doing what God is calling you to do! Contact us if you have any further questions or concerns about MPD.

Who is Residency for?

Residency is for young, ambitious leaders aged 21-26. We are looking for responsible young adults who want to grow spiritually, personally, and professionally. Residency is an excellent post grad opportunity to transition into adulthood and work responsibilities while simultaneously growing in your faith. If you don't fit into the "young adult" category, we do prayerfully consider exceptions. Please apply so we can talk through if Residency would be a good fit for you.

I’m considering seminary in the future, is the program accredited?

Residents can earn up to 18 hours of seminary credit through our partnership with the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. These credits serve as a jump start to future seminary work and are also a great way to bring together theological education and hands-on church application. Residents must apply separately and pay tuition to the seminary in order to get credit.

What is required in the Residency class?The class is pastor-taught and pastor-developed. It utilizes tried and tested methods from the educational system such as lecture, group discussion, book clinics, papers, presentations with the hope of transferring information from short-term into long-term memory.

We complement this class with our philosophy of training to educate but also give responsibility. The weightiness is a comprehensive way to see development.

In our experience, the folks whose attention is divided do not get as much as out the residency year. It is still good experience but if at all possible, we recommend that you treat it as if it is a post-graduate education before being launched into the work place. We like to say it is a "safe place to grow and fail" during the initial transition into life after college. If interested at all, please still apply and it will be discussed during one of the interviews.

What do people do post-residency?Some people continue in a ministry vocation, work as missionaries, or are plugged into a church planting team; however, that is not the majority. Primarily, we want to equip our residents to launch into the traditional work force. We want people to lead in all facets of their life including their household and career.

Do we get paid?

Yes. Our church does not have the funds to pay Residents, however, you are able to raise financial support to cover your salary through the process of Ministry Partner Development (more information below). Residents who raise financial support have seen God provide in incredible ways and on average reach 100% of their salary goal!

What is the Residency experience really like?

Residency is spiritual, personal, and professional development through educational classes as well as being given responsibilities of weight. Many people apply for Residency under the assumption that they will regularly be getting coffee with Pastors and diving deep into theology. Absolutely, we sure hope that you will build deep relationships here and learn more about God! Our goal as a staff is to model the concept of "church family" starting with us. We care much more about you as an individual than the work you produce.

However, we believe that the primary way God will sanctify you through Residency is through hard work. We often say "you can't get strong if you don't lift something heavy". Jesus often sanctifies us through serving others and being pushed out of our comfort zone. A lot of the time Residency will feel like serving when you don't want to, it will be pitching in extra hours to make events happen so people can hear the Gospel. It will mean taking out the trash and running errands to serve the church.

It's also a lot more than that. You will have the incredible opportunity to witness how our Pastors deal with conflict, how to shepherd people towards Jesus, and what it takes to lead a church. You will learn a lot from Residency class, but much of what you will learn will be through observing people who deeply love Jesus and desire to serve Him. "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."Proverbs 27:17

If you're interested in finding out more about a resident or partnering alongside them, you can click their photo below.